Piercing and assembling mechanism for assembling apparatus and methods



y 6, 1965 s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 v 17 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

STAQILEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS July 6, 1965 5. J. GARTNER PIERCING AND ASSEMBLI 3,192,601 NG MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

. STANLEY .1 GARTNER ATTORNEYS y- 1965 s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING' MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29. 1954 l7 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. Fg STANLEY J. GARTNER BY flmi d .ATTOR NEYS July 6, 1965 s. J. GARTNER PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASS 3,192,601 EMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 l? Sheets-Sheet 4 ATTORNEYS y 1965 5. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. STANLEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601 PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING July 6, 1965 APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTOR. STANLEY J. GARTNER #0 ATTORNEYS y 1965 5. J. GARTNER 7 3,192,601

PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING' APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 7 INVENTOR.

STANLEY J. GARTNER MUM ATTORNEYS 5. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

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STANLEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS July 6, 1965 S. J. GARTNER PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 APPARATUS AND METHODS 17 Sheets-Sheet 10 i IZUF 1 I20 124 Z I! -C Fig-l8 Fig. 17

INVENTOR. STANLEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS S. J. GARTNER July 6, 1965 3,192,601 PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 SheetsSheet ll INVENTOR. STANLEY J. GARTNER M L M ATTORNEYS- July 6, 1965 5. J. GARTNER 3,192,501 PIERCING' AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEHBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29. 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 12 l II 127 [27g I27K- I INVENT OR.

Flg- 22 C STANLEY J. GARTNER' ATTORNEYS y 6, 1965 s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

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PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet l4 new Hm INVENTOR. STANLEY J. GARTNER 11 9-32 BY M i W ATTORNEYS s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601 PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS July 6, 1965 Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet l I /zi 0 20 I00 I20 I40 I60 I80 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 o2o 4oso aiooizblwrsblseooflolamsozsozoozmswssg Fig. I NVEN TOR.

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ATTORNEYS July 6, 1965 s. J. GARTNER 3,192,60

PIERGING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Original Filed Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet l6 INVENTOR STANLEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS y 6, 1965 s. J. GARTNER 3,192,601

PIERCING AND ASSEMBLING MECHANISM FOR ASSEMBLING APPARATUS AND METHODS Ongmal Flled Jan. 29, 1954 17 Sheets-Sheet 17 -I.- I... I. .I.

INVENTOR. STAN LEY J. GARTNER ATTORNEYS United States Patent 16 Qlairns. (Ci. 2925.2)

The present invention relates generally to piercing and assembling mechanisms used in connection with methods and apparatus for automatically assembling parts, particularly the component parts of a mount or electrode assembly of an electronic tube or the like. This application is a division of application Serial No. 171,745, filed February 7, 1962 which is a division of application Serial No. 406,930, now US. Patent No. 3,069,749 of December 25, 1962.

During the several decades of technical development and commercial exploitation of vacuum tubes and the like there has been a persistent need for improved methods of assembly and for automatic assembling apparatus for the electrodes of such devices. Some early machines were devised that were adapted to assemble simple types of mounts but even these were unsuccessful to my knowledge.

For many years, tubes have included many electrodes, and with the development of the hearing aid and the proximity fuze, the dimensions of many types of tubes have been greatly reduced. It will be recognized that as mounts are made progressively smaller, manual assembly without deforming the delicate electrodes becomes progressively more difiicult. in the event that a mount is assembled imperfectly, perhaps including a deformed electrode, the defective nature of the mount may not be detected until after the mount is sealed in its envelope as finally exhausted and completed. At this stage, it is revealed as defective after it represents a far greater expenditure than is represented by the mount itself. In other words, manual assembly techniques tend to deform the electrodes in such a way that defective mounts are often detected after the tube construction has advanced to an expensive stage. The methods and apparatus provided by the present invention vastly reduce this tendency to deform electrodes; and any deformation produced occasionally is so prominent as to be immediately detected and the mount can be rejected while still representing comparatively small cost.

It is accordingly an important object of the present invention to provide new and improved methods and apparatus for automatically assembling electronic tube mounts and the like. A further object is to automatically assemble electrodes of even small and complicated mounts in rapid, precise and automatic routine.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention de tailed below, the electrodes are assembled in proper mutual relationship. The mount as finished in the disclosed embodiment includes a stem on which the electrode assembly is supported, the stem consisting of a glass button or header through which are sealed a set of wires. These serve as terminal connectors and mechanical supports of the electrodes later assembled on the wires. The header usually serves as the end of a tube envelope.

terns are ordinarily prepared in molding machines which locate the wires in the glass header with relatively broad tolerance. A feature of the present invention is in the tailoring or trimming of the leads to accurately Patented July 6, F365 ice determined lengths; and a further feature is in the adjustment of the lead positions to close tolerance, for consistent and reliable operation of the assembling machine and further to assure consistent, accurate duplication of the automatically assembled mounts. In accomplishing this purpose, the machine handles the stems and is effective to adjust the way in which the stems are held so as to perfect the positioning of the wires; and that effect is further enhanced by devices which trim certain of the wires to critical lengths spaced from the glass portion and to bend certain of the wires, where necessary, into the optimum pattern on which the remainder of the operations depend.

The machine includes a conveyor which carries a number of work holders from each of a series of stations to the next, step-wise. Because of the small dimensions of the illustrative mount being assembled and the consequent close tolerances involved, it is important that the conveyor should consistently advance the work holders to an accurate position in each station. Qrdinary conveyor mechanisms, such as the usual chain conveyor, tend to introduce slack and in this way tend to defeat the objective of accurate transport of the work holders. A feature of this invention resides in a conveyor having unusually large links, and correspondingly, having relatively few links. A subsidiary feature relates to the conveyor that is disposed about a pair of sprockets, one of which is movable to and from the other so as to accommodate the travel of the large links about those sprockets. The use of an odd number or links minimizes the motion of the movable sprocket, and the consequent impacts on the frame and in the drive are minimized.

In the illustrative machine, the previously molded glassand-wire stems are loaded manually onto a conveyor plate with rough preliminary orientation. A feature of the invention resides in the techniques and mechanisms for handling the glass-and-wire stem during its transfer from the initial feed plate to the work holders of the main conveyor, so as to preserve and improve the initial orientation and to etfect this transfer in a simple manner well suited to specialized forms of stems.

The completed mount in this illustrative disclosure involves parallel insulated discs, customarily of pierced mica, which fix the spacing between the electrodes precisely. As previously mentioned, the wires of the stern are adjusted in the machine, into an accurate pattern. In this illustrative machine an important feature is in the provision of a piercing die for forming the holes in the mica while each mica is held in the-very element utilized to transfer and apply the mica to stem wires, and in the case of the top mica, to certain of the electrodes.

That portion of the machine which locates the stem in the work-holder and trims the wires to critical lengths constitutes a useful combination; but if the machine accomplished no more, it might Well be considered uneconomical. Ordinarily, stems are manually inserted into a trimming die. An important feature of this invention is in not merely trimming the stem leads, but accomplish ing the further mount-assembly operations on the stem as trimmed and oriented in the trimming operation. The consistent orientation of the stems and the consistent trimming of the leads at a uniform distance from the workholder establishes a uniform condition of the stern utilized in assembly of the additional parts, with consistent accuracy and success.

The first mica to be assembled has an accurate pattern of pierced holes. Certain stem wires enter certain of the pierced holes in the mica when the mica is assembled to the stem. Those wires are then engaged and utilized in subsequent assembling operations, to pick up and accurately locate the mica so that electrodes may automatically be assembled to the mica, with portions of those electrodes extending through additional pierced holes in the mica. The mica is oriented indirectly.

A further feature of the present invention resides in the insertion of the side rods of the usual helically wound grid into holes pierced in a mica after the mica. is on the stem Wires. This is accomplished by applying the mica to the stern wires at an intermediate position, by supplying and to supply thrust-resisting backing for the mica while inserting the grid, and finally by pushing the grid and mica all the way to the short wires on the stern. A further feature resides in the welding of a grid stop to one of the grid side rods so as to prevent appreciable shifting of the grid in the completed tube, and to accomplish this despite extremely small dimensions involved in the illustrative mount to which the invention is applied. This is accomplished when the mica is at an intermediate position (such that both sides of the mica are easily accessible) and after grid insertion. The stop is applied to the grid side rod with the mica in this position, and thereafter the mica and grid subassembly is advanced to its final position on the stem wires. The welding tools serve not only to weld, but to transport the grid stop to position and to furnish thrust resistance behind the mica during insertion of the grid.

A further feature of the invention resides in the assembly of a second grid telescopically about the first while the first mica is in the intermediate position and with the side rods of the second grid penetrating the prepared holes in the mica, and thereafter advancing the subassembly of two grids and the mica to the final position on the wires of the stem.

In the illustrative disclosure, it will be seen that the two grids function with two long stem wires as electrodes of a pentode; and a two-part anode in the form of two preformed anode plates is automatically assembled to the mount thus far completed.

In this machine, a second mica is applied .to the projecting ends of the electrodes opposite the first mica; and a further part is assembled to the mount to lock the mica in place and to interconnect the parts of a two-part anode. One of those electrodes that penetrates the top mica is seized and oriented for indirectly orienting the top mica in this assembling operation, a feature that is found in another form in the grid-mounting stations.

A desirable minimum number of welding operations is elfected for permanently retaining the assembly of the electrodes and other parts in the initial accurate configuration produced by the uniformly repcated operations of the machine.

Included in several stations are various important forms of tools which, like the gathering tools in the cutting station, embrace the parts of the partial mount while a further component is advanced into place. An especially useful and novel form of gathering tool used in combination with assembling mechanisms in several of the stations involves jaws which close on each other and, when closed, present a pattern of apertures with flared openings facing the stern holder. They advance on and receive the stem wires, and having established orientation desired for an assembly operation, are laterally separated and withdrawn. Cerain split tools have flared openings facing toward the stem and flared openings facing away from the stem. These advance on the stem to receive and orient a pattern of wires while also acting to direct a further part,'such as a grid or an anode part, in a precise path toward the partial mount. These and further detailed yet important features of the invention will be better appreciated from the specific description of the various tools involved.

.In the event of misoperation, it may happen that a mount is deformed by the apparatus. Such deformed mount is prominently defective and is readily detected upon inspection and rejected as it emerges from the machine, long before it can reach the envelope seating and evacuating stage of manufacture of electron tubes. This is a valuable aspect of the invention. The mount as it emerges at the assembling stage of tube manufacture can be rejected at low cost if it should be found defective. In contrast, manually assembled mounts with no prominent visual defect are assembled into completed, sealed and exhausted tubes, and at this completed stage there is a very substantial rate of rejection. The rate of rejection of completed tubes containing mounts prepared under the present invention is shaiply reduced.

Further features of novelty will be appreciated from the illustrative disclosure that follows. It will naturally be understood that certain aspects and features of the described embodiment may be omitted as required and that certain features are useful in other combinations. However, the entire organization is admirably adapted to achieve the broad purpose of assembling and uniting the electrodes of a mount, particularly in assembling numerous electrodes of a subminiature mount, In the detailed disclosure, reference is made to the accompanying drawings forming part of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FEGS. 1A and 1B are a plan view of an illustrative mount machine embodying features of the present invention, includin the work conveyor and portions of the coordinating drive and cam mechanisms of the various work stations, showing in greatly enlarged perspective the progress of a typical mount during passage through the several work stations of the machine but omitting those stations;

FlG. 2 is an elevation in cross-section along the line 22 of FIG. 1 but at larger scale, showing the jawopening mechanisms for the stem blocks or work holders and the drive mechanism of the several stations of the machines;

FIG. 2A is a portion of FIG. 1A at larger scale showing details of the link conveyor for the stem block and the guide mechanisms for maintaining the stem block along a predetermined path during travel through successive stations;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation, with parts broken away and sectioned, showing the details of the work holder or stem block;

FIG. 4 is a sectional View taken substantially along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view, with parts broken away, of the stem block illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 is an elevation, certain parts sectioned and broken away, showing portions of the mechanism of FIG. 1A together with the stem-loading mechanism at Station A of FIG. 1A;

PEG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation, viewed generally from the line 7-7 of FIG. 6 and looking in the direction of the arrows, showing the turret indexing mechanism;

PEG. 8 is an elevation, with some parts broken away and shown in section, taken substantially along the line 33 of PEG. 6 and looking in the direction of the arrows, showing the details of transfer fingers, for displacing successive Iitems from the feed turret onto a two part transfer mem- FIG. 8A is an elevation showing the details of a split funnei guide interposed between the transfer member and the stem block in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the details of the two part transfer member of PEG. 6 with a stern loaded therein ready for transfer;

FIG. 10 is a four stage progressive illustration of the transfer member of FIG. 6 in successive positions of movement from receiving a stem at the feed turret to delivering the stem through the split guide to the stern lock;

FIG. 10A is an enlarged fragmentary plan view showing a stem on the feed turret together with part of the trans- 

1. IN A MOUNT MACHINE INCLUDING A STEM BLOCK CARRYING A STEM HAVING WIRES TO RECEIVE A MICA, A MICA-ASSEMBLING STATION COMPRISING A FEED CARRIER FORMED WITH PLURAL APERTURES EACH RECEIVING A MICA SUCCESSIVELY MOVABLE INTO A MICA-PIERCING LOCATION, A TRANSFER MEMBER FORMED WITH A SUPPORTING APERTURE ARRANGED TO RECEIVE AND SNUGLY ENGAGE A MICA, DIE MEANS AT SAID LOCATION FOR FORMING SUCCESSIVE MICAS WITH A PRESCRIBED PIERCED PATTERN AND INCLUDING A STRIPPER FOR DISPLACING SUCCESSIVE MICAS FROM SAID FEED CARRIER TO SAID TRANSFER MEMBER, GATHERING MEANS ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID WIRES FOR LOCATING THE WIRE TO CORRESPOND TO THE PRESCRIBED PIERCED PATTERN, OPERATING MEANS FOR MOVING SAID TRANSFER MEMBER ALONG A THRUST PATH AND THROUGH A PREDETERMINED STROKE TOWARD SAID STEM BLOCK WHEREBY THE SUPPORTED MICA IS APPLIED TO THE WIRES OF SAID STEM, AND PUSHER MEANS OPERABLE IN TIMED RELATION TO SAID OPERATING MEANS FOR FREEING THE SUPPORTED MICA FROM SAID TRANSFER MEMBER. 